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mdcds

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Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

336 points·by mdcds·4 years ago·486 comments

Ask HN: Do your services have readiness checks in addition to health checks?

1 points·by mdcds·4 years ago·0 comments

Ask HN: What did you pursue next after working at one of the FAANGs?

35 points·by mdcds·4 years ago·43 comments

comments

mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
> I see people report learning stuff, working on side projects, etc etc on HN. How?

1. people on the internet are full of shit

2. Demis Hassabis (DeepMind) takes a 3 hour break from work to, quote: "have dinner and spend time with family". Then has another work/thinking session. Give it a try. That's what I'm trying to do
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
> It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable,

-1 for strawman

disagreeing with someone and raking high on Disagreeableness BigFive trait are two different things
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
data is just that, not an argument in itself. how you use it to disprove something is up to you.
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
I don't trust numbers on Blind.

But I do look at averages for a specific role at a specific company on Levels
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
People and jobs are non-fungible: no two candidates are identical, no two jobs are the same.

Bid/ask spreads make sense to me only in situations when fungible units of A are traded for fungible units of B.
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
a side, but a sincere question: what do Data Scientists do and what can I expect one to produce as productive output?

I've worked as an SDE on data engineering projects myself (Spark / Hadoop stuff) and have friends who are ML researches and develop things like better recommendation results. Never met a data scientist.
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
> To be fair though, two of the most brilliant devs I've ever meet in my career had master's degrees

From what era / decade? World isn't static. MS is CS earned in 80s means a different thing than the one earned today
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
#2 links to atomic-energy.ru

So it's probably nuclear plant control console and I'm guessing nuclear fuel rods are represented by a dot inside the "sun" and rods themselves are suspended in some sort of a circular enclosure
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
Is it illegal you use fake name and fake age on the internet? asking for a friend :)
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
Actually, the relationship with 6-month treasury is even stronger:

https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=%24UST6M&p=W&b=1&g=0&id=p1...
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
Just something to think about: Fed Funds rate follows the 2-year treasury with a lag.

What BlackRock calls "deliberately causing recession", I would call "following the signal from the bond market"

Chart: https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=%24UST2Y&p=W&b=1&g=0&id=p4...
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
I've been using ChatGPT to summarize text and as a replacement for a search engine to look up concepts.

  Examples:
  - "what is the difference between Semigroup and Monoid"
  - "summarize following text: <paste something convoluted, like the transcript of a speech by Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chair >"
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
I'm heavily involved in interviewing at my current org and have been pondering same questions.

Some ideas:

  1. use ChatGPT (or similar) to test your questions. I read that GPT-like models cannot do abstract manipulation. Perhaps there is a way to phrase follow up questions such that the model cannot relate to the earlier question. 
  
  2. in system design session, focus on detail instead of high level. Also, you can draw a diagram of a design and ask the candidate to point out deficiencies.

  3. what if we could use GPT-like system to generate new programming questions of equal difficulty for each new interview candidate? this would solve the problem of questions leaking and making it to sites like LeetCode.
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
Since said person doesn't want to listen you and you don't have the direct authority over that person, I think it's reasonable to ask the team manager to deal with it.

Say something like the following. Just remember to include specific pieces of evidence that support your claim.

"Person X doesn't seem to care about company policies regarding the code quality. On following occasions: <list of offenses by person X> he/she did something sloppy that was against the policy A and refused to even acknowledge it during the review. Can you explain him/her why following these policies is important"
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
I asked ChatGPT the opposite quesiton (why becoming cheaper) :D

  Streaming services such as Netflix, Disney Plus, and HBO Max are becoming cheaper for a few reasons. First, the streaming market has become more competitive in recent years, with many new players entering the market. This has increased the pressure on existing streaming companies to offer lower prices in order to remain competitive.

  Second, streaming companies are able to offer lower prices because they have become more efficient at delivering content to users. With advances in technology and the growth of high-speed internet access, streaming companies are able to deliver more content at a lower cost.

  Finally, streaming companies are also able to offer lower prices because they have become more successful at monetizing their content through advertising and other means. This allows them to generate revenue from their content without needing to rely as much on subscription fees.

  Overall, the combination of increased competition, improved efficiency, and alternative revenue streams has led to lower prices for streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus, and HBO Max.
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
> “The price of streaming services is reflective of the economic realities and costs that it takes to produce and distribute the content,” Schmitt says.

Lies. Things are priced to maximize the amount of profit, which is Quantity * Price - Cost.

If you hike prices by 10% and lose 5% of customers - that's good business. $100 * 100 is less than $110 * 95

Someone who knows microeconomics better can correct me, but looks like companies can raise price and make more money as long as the demand continues to be inelastic
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
Consider this angle: what if it's your intuition telling you that whatever you are doing isn't important and you should be focusing your efforts on something else?
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
> The belief is that the climate is not static

It's a justified belief. Climate isn't static. For example, Sahara desert used to be an oasis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_humid_period
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
My Slack notifications are on only for DMs and mentions, and only during office hours. If there is a crisis afterhours, my teammates/manager have my phone number.
mdcds
·4 years ago·discuss
> Wouldn't it make the most sense to announce those decisions before making layoffs?

no. layoff from the bottom first. then push out more people as needed. bottom performers have fewer options and, on average, will be willing to put up with more than top performers